Leafing through Kanazawa’s golden legacy

Centuries in the past, farmers washing their produce within the spring at their native shrine noticed glints of gold left within the water and realized there was gold within the soil their crops have been grown in. The world turned recognized for its gold and the neighborhood took its identify from that gold-flecked water: Kanazawa (actually Golden Stream).

Spring-fed pond at Kanazawa’s Oyama Shrine Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

Kanazawa is now the capital of recent Ishikawa Prefecture on the Sea of Japan, with an extended and illustrious historical past and far to advocate it as a vacationer vacation spot. Whereas the gold on this space was way back mined out, the town retains its fame because the primary producer of gold leaf in Japan, liable for the creation of practically the entire extraordinarily skinny sheets of gold alloy made in Japan.

Gold leaf is utilized in all kinds of ornamental arts in Japan. It decorates the partitions of temples and the surfaces of byobu (folding display screen room dividers), containers and different containers, in addition to statues and carvings. It additionally options largely in jewellery manufacturing, an evolution from its use to brighten sword handles and different conventional samurai implements of a bygone age.

Raijin, the god of thunder, depicted on a gold-leaf lined “byobu” Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

Manufacturing is a painstaking and time-consuming course of that has been extremely refined since being launched in Japan from China, probably as early because the third century.

It’s maybe to be anticipated that Kanazawa, as a spot the place gold itself was extracted from the earth, would take the lead as a gold leaf producer, however the truth is it was not till the late sixteenth century that gold leaf manufacturing was launched to Kanazawa. And the craft was quickly snatched away, when the Tokugawa shogun mandated that gold leaf may solely be produced in his capital of Edo. Manufacturing didn’t return to Kanazawa till the nineteenth century, when restrictions have been relaxed and gold beaters arrived from Kyoto to help with the reconstruction of the town’s fire-damaged fortress. Since then, nevertheless, Kanazawa has come to dominate the sector and the strategy of gold leaf manufacturing used is now registered as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage.

This unbelievable historical past is defined on the Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum, simply across the nook from Kanazawa’s famed Higashi Chaya District. Simply because the district is a must-see for guests to Kanazawa, a visit to the museum is a should for guests to the district. It’s price noting that this Kanazawa neighborhood was traditionally, and stays in the present day, the house of most of Kanazawa’s gold beaters.

The museum’s everlasting assortment contains shows on gold and gold leaf manufacturing, exhibiting how a bar of gold turns into hundreds of lustrous super-thin sheets.

Museum show of conventional gold leaf manufacturing Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

A stunning key ingredient to the method is a particular type of washi paper referred to as haku uchigami that’s positioned between the 5 centimeter-square stretched gold sheets of 1/20 mm. thickness as they’re pounded ever thinner, guaranteeing that they skinny with out sticking. The method for making that paper is defined within the museum, along with shows on the standard and fashionable gold-beating processes that lead to gold leaf that’s 1/10,000 mm thick.

Stacks of gold leaf are crushed thinner by fashionable equipment. Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

The museum has a separate “momentary” gallery, rotating shows of objets d’artwork and different objects made utilizing gold and gold leaf. Included are vintage ceramics, whimsical collectible figurines and Buddhist altars. Valuable vintage kimono made with cloth interwoven with gold threads or adorned with intricate embroidery of gold are additionally typically featured.

To totally respect the breadth of makes use of of gold leaf, step across the nook to Kinpakuya Sakuda, a store providing all kinds of gold leaf objects.

The shop has an connected workshop the place guests can quietly observe the completed gold leaf being trimmed and packaged and even being utilized to things. It’s attention-grabbing to study that the leftover trimmings have been as soon as used as edible gold flakes (apparently that product is produced in a different way post-COVID).

Gold leaf is trimmed and packaged at Kinpakuya Sakuda. Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

4 occasions a day (9:00, 10:30, 13:00 and 15:00) guests to Sakuda can even have a 60 minute gold leaf expertise, making use of gold leaf to chopsticks, small dishes, or quite a lot of different objects for on a regular basis use to make a personalised memento of Kanazawa.

The bottom ground of the store has numerous shopper objects made with gold leaf, typically small, inexpensive memento objects. Step upstairs to see the true artwork of gold leaf—maybe a chunk for the foyer of your company headquarters?

For a type of “solely in Japan” experiences, pop into each the boys’s and women’ rooms upstairs. One is roofed in gold leaf and the opposite in silver leaf. Dazzling!

Again in Higashi Chaya, there’s one final must-see spot for gold leaf: Hakuza Hikarigura. From the skin, this will appear to be simply one other store that includes high-end objects made with gold leaf—they usually have loads of distinctive wares on provide — however step into the courtyard towards the again to seek out the kura (conventional fire-proof warehouse), with outer partitions lined in gold leaf from which the store derives its identify: Hikarigura (glowing warehouse).

Outer wall of the Hikarigura glowing warehouse, lined in gold leaf Photograph: Vicki L Beyer

Guests to Kanazawa will discover objects of gold and gold leaf all over the place, however this little nook of the town undoubtedly gives one of the best introduction and understanding of this lovely materials. As a remaining instance of the ubiquitousness of gold leaf in Kanazawa, you’ll want to search for when on the Shinkansen platform at Kanazawa station. Even the tops of the pillars within the station are lined in gold leaf.

Kanazawa Yasue Gold Leaf Museum: 9:30-17:00 (closed Mondays and New 12 months’s); admission 310 yen.

Kinpakuya Sakuda: open day by day, 9:00-17:00

Hakuza Hikarigura: open day by day, 9:00-17:00

Vicki L Beyer, a daily Japan Right now contributor, is a contract journey author who additionally blogs about experiencing Japan. Observe her weblog at jigsaw-japan.com.

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